Kangana Ranaut's Queen to be remade in Tamil; Tamannaah Bhatia cast as Rani

Kangana Ranaut's porytrayal of Rani in Vikas Bahl's slice of life film Queen earned her accolades from all quarters along with a National Award and the Filmfare Award for the Best Actress in a Leading Role.

A still from Kangana Ranaut's 'Queen'. Image courtesy: Reuters

Gulte.com reports that Tamil filmmaker Bhagyaraja had acquired the southern remake rights of the blockbuster a long ago. Ever since, various renowned names had been cropping up amidst speculations of which south actress will reprise Ranaut's role. Shruti Haasan, Tamannaah Bhatia, Nayanthara, Trisha, Samantha and Anushka Shetty were all considered for the role.

Now, Deccan Chronicle confirms that Tamannah will be playing the titular role in the Tamil remake of Queen. “I’ve signed the film, but we are still to lock in the dates. As far as I know, this project will start rolling in 2017. Personally, Queen is one of my favourite films and right from the day I saw it, I wanted to be part of the remake. I am excited as I am acting in a film that is extremely close to my heart. However, the character I will play will definitely be my version of Queen," says Tamannaah, according to the report.

The film will be a harbinger of women power in the otherwise male-dominated Tamil cinema. The film will be directed by senior actor Revathy and its dialogues have been penned by Suhasini Maniratnam who, however, will not act in the film.

“I’ve finished writing the dialogues for the remake three months back. Now, it’s for Revathy to take it forward," says Maniratnam to Deccan Chronicle.

Greatandra.com suggests that Tamannaah's film will be bilingual as it will be shot both in Tamil and Telugu. However, Deccan Chronicle quotes Tamannaah as saying, "It is not finalised yet. As of now, I can only talk about the Tamil version that I am part of.”

The report by Gulte.com states that the film will be shot in four languages starring four actresses in the lead role and directed by four filmmakers.

"Tamannah for Tamil, Amala Paul for Malayalam and Parul Yadav for Kannada versions have been finalised but no actress for the Telugu version has been zeroed in yet," says Bhagyaraja, according to the report. "Anish Kuruvilla for Telugu, Revathi for Tamil and Malayalam and Prakash Raj for Kannada remakes have been signed as directors."

The same report suggests that he has signed Amy Jackson to reprise the role of Lisa Haydon, who played Rani's friend in Paris, in all the four south languages.

Such huge names associated with the remake are a testimony to the popularity of the original film. The fans down south eagerly await more developments and will soon crown the reigning Queen of the South Indian box office.